Growing up in a crime-infested neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, D. W. Gutridge suffered physical and psychological abuse that caused him to doubt his inherent self-worth. There was nothing positive to drive his life until he walked down the street one day-and right into a miracle. A girl smiled. And she smiled with such effervescence that his life was forever changed. In this emotional and sincere memoir, D. W. Gutridge looks back on meeting Jackie Dee, the girl of his dreams. During that brief encounter more than thirty-five years ago, he received a vision of the two of them together-for life, and that vision gave him a purpose and focus he'd never before known. During the next few years, as D. W. Gutridge struggled to make his desires known to Jackie, a tug-of-war developed between his beautiful love for her and the harsh environment around him, pulling him into a life of violence, alcohol, and drugs. But through it all, he was unwilling to give up on the girl of his dreams. Captured by a Smile touches on life issues and events we all encounter, including our first kiss, our first love, and our first heartbreak. D. W. Gutridge's extraordinary story of unparalleled love and redemption brings us hope.

Exploring the way in which criminal punishment is interpreted and narrated by offenders, this book examines the meaning offenders ascribe to their sentence and the consequences of this for future desistance.

Once in everyones life, you are forced to deal with lifes unexpectancy. Whether that lifes unexpectancy happens to be an illness that had you bedridden for any period of your life, or it is a simple thought that managed to captivate your mind, they are no surprise to God who desires that you walk in freedom. This book allows you to see Gods escape route for any confinement. Wouldnt it be nice if you could have Gods plan? Hence, you are not oblivious of your enemys plan to erect a wall within you. But Jesus in his Word has declared, In the World you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confi dent, certain, undaunted! For I have overcome the World [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you]. (John 16:33 [Amplifi ed]) If you are tired of living in the wall of prison (spiritual, mental, and physical) that was not meant for you to start with and you want your freedom, this book is for you. Do you know that God is so much interested with your freedom? As such, he is willing to trade places with you. But how bad do you treasure your liberty? Only you can answer that.

An esteemed Insight Meditation teacher leads you through the sublime qualities of Buddhism—kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—and how they can enrich your life Compassion, kindness, equanimity, and joy are not only the fruits of the awakened life but also the path to it—attitudes of mind that can be cultivated through intention and dedication. Also known as the brahma viharas (sublime abodes) and the “Four Immeasurables,” these enobling qualities are far more than simply the “feel-good” states they are often mistaken for. They must be pursued sincerely as a spiritual practice—not just as a means of getting a “spiritual high”—in order to experience the full extent of their power. In Boundless Heart, Christina Feldman presents teachings on the Four Immeasurables, exploring how they balance each other in a way that enhances them all. Her simple practices will lead you toward a life infused with kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—and to a way of being that promotes those qualities to the world at large.

This timely book expands on Viktor Frankl's seminal Man's Search for Meaning, examining the book's concepts in depth and widening the market for them by introducing an entirely new way to look at work and the workplace. Alex Pattakos, a former colleague of Frankl's, brings the search for meaning at work within the grasp of every reader using simple, straightforward language. The author distills Frankl's ideas into seven core principles: Exercise the freedom to choose your attitude; Realize your will to meaning; Detect the meaning of life's moments; Don't work against yourself; Look at yourself from a distance; Shift your focus of attention; and Extend beyond yourself. By demonstrating how Dr. Frankl's key principles can be applied to all kinds of work situations, Prisoners of Our Thoughts opens up new opportunities for finding personal meaning and living an authentic work life.

Imprisoned Selves calls for a new kind of vitality through re-education and alternative viewpoints of teacher education and research. It uses prison sites and various rehabilitative, schooling contexts as a place of inquiry into teacher and learned development. Methods of investigation used combine narrative with ethnography, and the result is an insider's personal account of an unfamiliar world. This inside-out approach to research uses prisons as an educational context and academe as a kind of correctional institution (with paradigms of correctionalism in operation). The author views teachers and teacher educators as inmates of correctional-educational systems who must strive to become writer-outlaws in order to transform paradigms of control. Through their own actions, inmates, whether in prisons or academe, can learn that storytelling is a source of human caring that connects unlikely worlds and persons. Many empowering opportunities are described that can arise among co-inquirers, even within the most restrictive circumstances.